


The Portrait of Tyelperinquar

by RaisingCaiin



Category: The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde, The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Crossover, M/M, Mind Games, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Seduction, What Have I Done
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-26
Updated: 2017-06-26
Packaged: 2018-11-19 10:25:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 457
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11311440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RaisingCaiin/pseuds/RaisingCaiin
Summary: In S.A. 1200, famed Khazad sculptor Narvi Firebeard attempts a new medium, portraiture, with the amused assistance of his friend, fellow craftsman Celebrimbor Curufinwion.Also in S.A. 1200, Lord Annatar Aulendil is most distressed to learn that Narvi has been keeping this astonishing talent - and more importantly, such a handsome and susceptible friend - from Aulendil's acquaintance.





	The Portrait of Tyelperinquar

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Bushwah](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bushwah/gifts).
  * Inspired by [The Picture of Gorthaur the Cruel](https://archiveofourown.org/works/9805523) by [Bushwah](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bushwah/pseuds/Bushwah). 



The craftsman is the architect of valuable things. To channel great power, to reveal existing beauty, and to drive increased efficacy, is the tri-fold aim of craft; the craftsman himself is of little to no consequence, especially should he be found unsuited to constant furtherance of his art.  

The highest form of craft is creation. The rightful craftsman is he who devises his own thoughts, who translates such thoughts to manner or material, who put forward his labors for the betterment of a greater whole.

Those who would degrade or spoil such craft are corrupt without any excuse of resolution. This is a tremendous fault.

The next best form of craft is improvement. Those who take up a concept or thing created by another, and enhance it to better attend a larger population, are the desirants. They are the elect who aspire beyond their means, or else those to whom the craft means only beauty and not a greater good, but for these there remains hope all the same.

There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral creation. Craft is well made, or poorly made. That is all.  

Our Age’s dislike of pragmatism is the rage of Fëanáro Curufinwë seeing his own face in a glass – irrefutable proof that he is only a man.

Our Age’s disdain for idealization and development is the rage of Fëanáro Curufinwë _not_ seeing his own face in the glass – a great rage at a great thing that he did not make, but would still prefer that all who use, acclaim him as master of.

Morality – whether of self, subject, master, or beneficiary – forms no part of the craftsman’s subject matter. The morality of craft is determined solely by the scale and quantity of use to which it may be put.

No craftsman need defend a well-made work. The defense of such a work is already inherent in its use, though even great use may be increased.

No craftsman should ever have ethical sympathies. In a craftsman, such sympathies are an unpardonable descent into the singular, where craft must strive for the good of the greater.

No craftsman is ever content, for craft aspires _to_ all things, and _to better_ all things. Matter and light, thought and language, self and other alike are tools, free for the craftsman’s use. Virtue and vice, goodness and sin, are abstract concepts that serve no instrumental purpose, and as such, are best left unregarded.

Any creature may be forgiven for crafting a useful thing, so long as this is done for purposes beyond admiration or adulation. There is no excuse for crafting a useless thing.

Craft, and the pinnacle that it reaches in creation, are the highest purpose to which any might aspire.

 


End file.
